Meet the Staff

Smoking Gun Indoor Range and Training Center is proud to provide firearm courses from qualified instructors with years of experience.

Kim Smith

Black Hills resident since 1955. US Navy Vietnam 4 years. Married with 2 grown children. Lifetime of enjoying hunting, backpacking, and traveling with family. Bought my first business at age of 24, and Smoking Gun makes my 4th business (and last) of my career.

Dale has over 25 years of Law Enforcement Experience. 17 years as a Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor, 15 years as a Law Enforcement Self Defense Instructor. All with the Rapid City Police Department. He has been a lifelong shooter of handguns, rifles and shotguns. Dale also reloads for all the firearms he owns and shoots. Dale has attended and Instructed numerous self defense schools and training seminars. He is a lifelong resident of Rapid City.

Matthew has been an NRA certified firearms instructor since 2015 and can usually be found shooting competitively in local IPSC, USPSA and 3-Gun events. Matthew is also a certified Range Safety Officer, keeping a watchful eye on the range while others are enjoying the sport. His private lessons usually focuses on firearm safety and orientation for new shooters and skill development, high pressure and competitive shooting development for long time and competitive shooters that are looking to brush up on their skills. Matthew also teaches introduction to pistol group courses and other custom courses that he develops.

Tim Hardy

Rapid City Native, Tim enjoys hunting and fishing in the Black Hills and Wyoming. Mechanist by trade working in Rapid City at Johnson machine for 26 years, doing automotive and industrial machine work. Avid gun collector. Tim currently works here at Smoking Gun as an RSO, Instructor, and in our pro shop.

Richard has been with Smoking Gun Indoor Range since its inception. He has been in the Shooting Industry since 1993 as a consultant and outdoor writer. During a stint in law enforcement, he was involved in training new recruits in handgun qualification. He has competed in most handgun competition and has won state titles in both Kansas and South Dakota.

A native of the Black Hills, Mike has 19 years of Law Enforcement experience and is a graduate of both the Montana and South Dakota Law Enforcement Academies. He has been a firearms instructor since 2013. A lifelong hunter, Mike was introduced to handguns at the age of 25, but fell in love and has been a recreational shooter, competitor and instructor. Mike has instructed hundreds of students in the Law Enforcement field.

Classes:•Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement•Civil/Officer Liability

Jerry F Hoenke USA Col (Ret)

Jerry has over 35 years military training and pistol competitive shooting experience. 20 years as a military smalls arms instructor, range officer and range safety officer. He has competed in Bullseye pistol and Military combat competition and has won several national titles and many state and regional titles.

Kris served over 5 years in the United States Army as an Airborne Infantry Squad Leader, with two military deployments to Afghanistan and almost his entire career spent overseas. After being honorably discharged, Kris moved back to the USA and has spent 21 months deployed in high threat, non-permissive environments as a private military contractor while also attending school working towards a Bachelors of Science in History.

Kris began working with the Smoking Gun from opening day, working as a Range Safety Officer and Firearms Instructor. Kris’ vast array of experience includes over four years in a combat environment, protective operations, concealed carry and defensive shooting with both handgun and rifle, Tactical Combat Casualty Care, cultural awareness, and low profile operations.

In his free time Kris enjoys developing his skill set of instruction, firearms building, reloading, shooting, and medical treatment. He can often be found enjoying the Black Hills, working on his cars, or spending time with his dog.